City Police

Police reports about the final moments of Demetrius Cruz’s life include the
kind of information that is at once difficult to fathom and yet somehow part
of the ordinary but tragic tapestry of life in the U.S.

Cruz was riding in a car with his cousin on a Denver street Saturday when the
driver of a white car started bumping, following and then chasing the teens'
car. Cruz called his aunt. He was scared. Someone in the white car fired
several shots, striking and killing Cruz. He was just 15 years old. That same
night in Kansas City, Mo., a bullet sliced through the body of 4-year-old
Aydan Perea while he was sitting in a car with his dad. Police say Perea was
the innocent and unsuspecting victim of a gang drive by. Days later, on
Tuesday, Dalton Williams, 16, was killed in Pierre, S.D. with a shotgun
wielded by a friend after a dispute over a paintball game.

In each case, local newspapers and television stations captured the shocking
and sad details. But no national media camped outside the boys' homes, schools
or places of worship. No satellite trucks were driven in to ...